Indonesian cryptocurrency exchange Indodax recently experienced a significant security breach, resulting in the theft of approximately $22 million in various digital assets. In response to this alarming incident, the company has disabled both its mobile and web applications to conduct a thorough investigation.

On September 11th, multiple blockchain security firms, including PeckShield, Cyvers, and SlowMist, reported an attack on Indodax’s hot wallets. The hacker managed to steal substantial amounts of Bitcoin (BTC), Tron (TRX), Ether (ETH), Polygon (POL), Shiba Inu (SHIB), and several other cryptocurrencies.

According to SlowMist’s independent probe, the breach likely occurred in Indodax’s withdrawal system. This vulnerability allowed the hacker to siphon funds directly from the exchange’s hot wallet.

The breakdown of the stolen assets is as follows: over $1.42 million in Bitcoin, $2.4 million in Tron blockchain tokens, more than $14.6 million in various ERC-20 tokens, $2.58 million in Polygon (POL), and $0.9 million in Ether from the Optimism blockchain.

In the wake of these alerts, Indodax promptly acknowledged the security breach and notified its users about a temporary suspension of services. The company issued a statement explaining:

“Currently, we are conducting a complete maintenance to ensure the entire system is operating properly. During this maintenance process, the INDODAX web platform and application are temporarily inaccessible.”

Despite this setback, Indodax reassured its investors that their crypto assets remain secure.

Yosi Hammer, head of AI at Cyvers, suspects that North Korea’s notorious Lazarus Group could be behind the attack. He remarked:

“The pattern and the characteristics of the (Indodax) attack highly resemble those of North Korea’s Lazarus Group.”

Related investigations have shown that the Lazarus Group has laundered over $200 million in hacked cryptocurrency since 2020.

CoinMarketCap data reveals that Indodax holds a reserve balance of $369 million, some of which may be utilized to compensate affected investors.

This security breach underscores the ongoing risks within the cryptocurrency industry and highlights the importance of robust security measures to protect digital assets.